mildness - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English mildenesse, from Old English mildnes, mildness, equivalent to mild +‎ -ness. Cognate with Old High German miltnissa (“compassion, mercy, sympathy, pity”).

mildness (countable and uncountable, plural mildnesses)

1. The quality of being mild; gentleness.
   • c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act IIII, scene i:
     A ſnowy Feather ſpangled white he beares,
     To ſignifie the mildneſſe of his minde,
     That ſatiate with ſpoile refuſeth blood:

• mindless